


Super High School Level Despair

by Tangerine_Catnip



Category: Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blupjeans Week 2018, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Episode: e060-066 The Stolen Century Parts 1-7, F/M, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-16 04:30:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14804402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tangerine_Catnip/pseuds/Tangerine_Catnip
Summary: The IPRE crew are forced to participate in the latest round of the deadly killing games taking place at Hope’s Peak Academy. (Blupjeans Week Day 5 – Highschool AU??)





	Super High School Level Despair

There was a moment, right when Barry was first waking up, when he couldn't remember where he was or why, and he could honestly say that was the only part of his day that was anything close to peaceful.

Barry grabbed his glasses and shoved them into his face. The blurry outlines on the walls solidified into thick iron panels with comically oversized nuts and bolts fastening them in place, and the massive yellow security camera hanging from the ceiling above his bed loomed over him.

Besides those two singular additions. The room looked much like you'd expect for a dorm in a prestigious private academy. There was an attached bathroom, a desk, and a small living space with a table and chairs.

The bed was a little small. It was meant for a teenager, not a forty-year-old who was also a bit on the chubby side.

Not for the first time, Barry wondered why the mastermind had trapped them in a high school of all places, but that tiny issue didn't even rank in the top ten most pressing questions he had.

Barry glanced up at the clock. It was still half an hour until the daily breakfast meeting, but now that he was awake, he might as well head to the dining hall.

Barry slipped out of bed and pulled on his jeans, shirt, and the long red robe he had been wearing when he woke up in the gymnasium of Hope's Peak Academy.

It was quite the singular item of clothing, though maybe not the most fashion-forward, and had a dark blue patch sewn over the right side of the chest bearing the letters IPRE.

Barry had no idea what that referred to, but he felt more comfortable wearing the robe than not. The others had robes just like his, tailored to fit their vastly different body types. That detail felt like it should be significant, but no one had been able to come up with a plausible theory yet, besides being put in them for the sake of the game.

On his way down to the dining hall, Barry passed six other doorways, each bearing a nameplate and a crude illustration of the occupant.

From there, the hallway opened up into a perfectly square junction with whitewashed walls. There were doors to the laundry room and a bathhouse on the right, the dining hall to the left, and the tunnel leading to Hope's Peak Academy proper up ahead.

Barry glanced back to see if anyone else was on their way, but there was nothing but an empty and silent hallway behind him.

The morning meetings had been Davenport's suggestion. The original intent was to plan out the day's activities and share information; but as weeks in captivity turned into months, it morphed into more of an informal roll call to make sure everyone had survived the night.

Davenport always arrived first. He considerate it part of his duty as their leader to be there as the others trickled in. He showed a surprising amount of dedication to his role, considering he was only their leader because no one else had volunteered.

Davenport looked a little surprised to see Barry up so early but declined to pass comment as he collapsed into a chair halfway down the table. Barry considered getting up to go to the kitchen and make himself some coffee but seeing as there was nowhere for him to go and nothing for him to do, it hardly seemed worth it.

To pass the time he decided to try and guess what order the others would arrive.

Magnus would be next, arriving just before the clock struck 9, having just finished his morning workout. Then Lucretia, arriving exactly on time with an armful of books she had borrowed from the library in hope one might contain a clue to helping them escape. Then Merle, who was probably running late because he underestimated the walk from the indoor greenhouse to the dormitories. Then last and latest, the twins, walking shoulder to shoulder after having slept in.

To Barry's mild bemusement, he got it exactly right. Despite having only known them for a few months, Barry was finding himself uncannily able to predict the thoughts and feelings of his fellow inmates.

Five of the seven of them sat together at the biggest of the tables, while Lup and Taako sat at a two-person table a short distance away. Barry couldn't blame them for separating themselves. In this situation, trust was very hard to come by and having someone that would watch your back was invaluable.

Still, part of Barry wished that he could pull Lup aside and talk to her, even just for a few minutes.

It was ludicrous to think that he might be developing a crush on someone under these circumstances, but Barry had no other way to reconcile the ache in his chest whenever he looked at or thought about her for too long.

Barry just had to hope that it went away. After all, he couldn't really be in love with someone he had only just met.

"So..." Davenport began. "Does anyone have anything new to report?"

A silence settled over the seven. No one able to meet anyone else's eyes.

"The uh... the pool is still really nice?" Magnus hedged.

"Fuck this. I'm going to go make breakfast," Taako said, standing up and heading to the kitchen. Lup followed a few steps after him. Barry couldn't help watching her as she passed right by his chair. She was holding herself together well, but there was no hiding the lingering fear that was hanging over all their heads.

Barry had a sudden urge to wrap her up in his arms and comfort her. He gripped the edge of the table, chastising himself thoroughly for even thinking of invading her boundaries like that.

No one else raised any objections to the twins sitting out. They were all hungry, and eating food prepared by the twins was one of the only good things about being trapped together.

"Lucretia, have you-?" Davenport asked.

Lucretia looked up from her book and shook her head. "No, Sorry..."

Another long silence stretched.

"Cheer up guys, someone is bound to come bust us out eventually!" Merle insisted.

"Still hanging on to that old chestnut, huh?"

Everyone jolted and turned towards the head of the table. Standing on a chair, the table top coming up to just past his belly button, was a plush teddy bear. He was split right down the middle, black fur on the left, white on the right, a cute button eye on one side and a blood red slant on the other, and half of a wicked toothy grin plastered on his face.

"I'm used to people clinging to that possibility, but it's been almost a month! When is it going to sink through your thick skulls that no one is coming to help you?"

Seven pairs of eyes glared back at Monokuma. (Taako and Lup standing at the kitchen door)

"Of course, if you truly wanted out, there's a practical solution. Stop whining, show some initiative, and kill someone!"

"Fuck you!" Magnus shouted, slamming his fist down hard on the table.

"Yeah! What he said," Merle chimed in.

"Gosh you really are a stubborn bunch, aren't you?" Monokuma asked, adopting a pose with his two paws tucked under his chin. "I want a murder! Is that so much to ask? Just one teeny tiny murder and you can go free!"

"But only one of us..." Lucretia whispered, pressing her book firmly against her chest.

"Even if we could all go, I wouldn't let it happen," Magnus insisted. "We're going to find a way out of here, and it's not going to be by killing one another."

"So, you're really giving in, just like that?" Monokuma asked, tilting his head to the side. "Rawer! Kids these days! No motivation!"

Then suddenly the little robotic bear froze up, blinking a few times.

"Hey, wait! That's it! Motivation! That's what I've been forgetting! I went to all the trouble of bringing you guys here and providing all the weapons, but I forgot to give you motivation!"

Before anyone could make sense of that, Monokuma jumped up on the table and yelled. "All students report to the AV room, Tut suet! That's French for haul your asses!"

* * *

  
Barry looked down at the thin reflective disc he had been handed, and at his name scrawled across it in black marker.

"We don't have to watch them..." Lucretia murmured.

"This is very clearly a trap," Magnus agreed.

"Yeah, but it could also give us some clue about what in the shit covered hell is going on," Lup said, gesturing at the disc with the twins' names on it that Taako was holding.

"How bad could they really be?" Merle asked. "No one is going to kill someone because of a stupid movie."

Barry's fingers tightened around the sides of his disc. "I'll go first. That way we'll at least know what we're dealing with."

The other six looked up at him with concern, but no one rejected his suggestion.

He sat down in front of the nearest of the twenty or so computer stations that resided in the A/V room and shoved his disc into the slot on the tower. The computer didn't have any speakers attached, only a pair of huge padded earphones.

Barry placed them over his head as everyone else crowded around him.

The screen flickered, and Barry found himself looking at two achingly familiar faces. Gregor and Marlena Bluejeans.

"We're just so proud," Marlena enthused. She was sitting next to Gregor on a sofa in the living room of the house Barry grew up in and smiling wide for the camera. Judging from the markings around the screen, this was taken from a news broadcast.

"Barry was always so fascinated with the stars and the sky-" Gregor added.

"But we never thought that it would be possible for him to go up there and study them!"

"Those are my parents..." Barry explained, filling in the others who couldn't hear the video.

But the moment Barry looked away, the video changed. The cosy Livingroom replaced with a scene of utter destruction. A huge black pillar had bisected the roof and the sofa, and shadowy black forms lurked behind the broken windows.

The video paused, and Monokuma's voice began narrating over it.

"Look at those lovely parents! So full of pride and hope! But little did they know that the day their son left on his grand adventure, their entire world would be consumed. How could such a tragedy happen? Find out after graduation!"

The video closed on its own. Leaving a black desktop.

Barry slowly took his headphones off.

"What the fuck?" Taako hissed.

"I don't... I don't know," Barry replied with a shake of his head.

"That can't be real," Magnus insisted.

Barry shrugged. "That was their Livingroom... down to the last detail..."

The others all looked at their dvds. Wordlessly deciding that all of them would need to be watched.

* * *

  
If it was possible, lunch was even more subdued than breakfast had been.

Lup had thrown together a simple pasta dish and served it to her stone-faced companions.

Taako stayed in his room. According to Lup, he'd developed a stomach ache.

They ate in further silence. Having already said all they were going to back in the AV room.

Barry didn't know the exact details of what everyone's video had shown, but the general pattern remained the same. Something or someone from your past being ripped apart by shadowy monsters and the implication that graduation (Monokuma's term for what would happen if any of them got away with murder) was the only way to find out what had happened or do anything about it.

After everyone had finished eating, Barry collected the plates and brought them back to the kitchen.

Lup was standing at the sink, holding the frying pan she had used to make the pasta sauce under the faucet and scrubbing it over and over.

Barry placed the plates down beside her, noticing that the pan Lup was working on was already spotless.

Without thinking, Barry reached over and took her wrist. She jolted and stared up at him.

"Hey. You've already done a lot. I can finish cleaning the dishes."

Lup swallowed and took a step back, letting Barry take over her position.

Lup didn't turn or move to leave. She propped herself against the counter and shifted her stare to the floor.

Barry was caught between knowing that she preferred to be left alone and wanting desperately to pull her out of her own head.

"Hey, Lup?"

She reacted slowly, blinking twice before finally lifting her head up.

"Are you... are you doing anything later today?" Barry asked.

Lup frowned, rolled her eyes, and gestured vaguely towards the school-turned-prison around them, reminding him that there was literally nowhere for her to go.

"Shit. Okay, that was maybe the wrong way to put it," Barry admitted sheepishly. "Let me try again? Would you like to spend some time together?"

Lup crossed her arms over her chest.

"It's okay if you'd rather be with Taako," Barry added.

Lup closed her eyes for a moment, then nodded.

"Sure, Barry. I could actually use a bit of a distraction."

* * *

  
Together Lup and Barry wandered through the hallways of Hope's Peak Academy for about an hour. Barry made a concerted effort to keep talking the whole time, providing the distraction Lup had asked for to the best of his abilities.

The conversation never really dipped below the surface of idle chatter, but Barry learned that he and Lup had a surprising amount in common. He shared a few of his pet theories on interplanetary energy transference, and Lup pulled him into a small debate over nature vs nurture in relation to an individual's magical potential.

They ended up in the gym, where Barry took a seat on the bleachers and watched Lup launch a seemingly endless barrage of fireballs at the iron covers on the windows. The metal heated up and began to glow an intense shade of orange, but no matter how hard Lup kept pushing, it didn't melt.

She had tried this before, and Barry got the sense that this was more about burning off steam than hope that it might work this time.

Eventually, Lup burned herself out and came to rest on the bench beside Barry. She looked utterly exhausted and was breathing heavily.

Before he could think better of it, Barry reached over and wrapped an arm around Lup's shoulders. Without hesitation, she leaned back against him, resting her head on his cheat.

Barry swore he felt his heart skip a beat inside his chest. Normally it took ages for him to accustom himself to the company of other people, especially if the person in question was someone he admired and really wanted to like him. But somehow, he had skipped past all the proceeding

steps and gotten the courage to make the first move.

Cuddling with Lup felt like second nature. Her warmth against his side, the shape of her body pressed into his. It was all so familiar.

Thinking about it too hard was starting to give Barry a headache. So, he reached for something to say.

"Do you want to talk about the videos?"

Lup shrugged and answered his question with one of her own, "Do you still think it might've been real?"

"It felt like it was real. Those shadows in the background... I know I've seen them before. Maybe in a nightmare?"

Barry sighed. Every time he tried to track down one thread of this mystery, he found himself getting tangled up in all the others and losing his place

"There's something very wrong going on here," Barry said, then remembering that he was currently sitting in a high school gym with plates over the windows and security cameras everywhere, added, "More than the obvious anyway..."  
Barry didn't want to pry, but he was painfully curious what had been in Lup and Taako's video.

"What did it look like to you?" He asked.

Lup took his left hand and pulled it into her lap. She toyed with his fingers, twining them in with hers, and massage the pads of his fingers with her other hand.

The whole thing was so distracting that Barry had forgotten he even asked a question by the time Lup answered him.

"Ours didn't have the shadows in it..." Lup admitted. "It was just Monokuma reminding us of something..."

Barry squeezed her hand. He was dying to ask, but Something told him the best way to encourage Lup to open up was to listen and wait patiently.

Lup turned his hand over and pressed it between her palms.

"-Taako and I fought our whole lives to give ourselves a future, if we both die in here, now or later, then it was all for nothing. I'd do anything to get him out, and he'd do the same for me."

Barry didn't have to guess what 'anything' meant in this context.

"But even if you murdered someone and got away with it, only one person is allowed to leave."

Lup nodded. "That's the rules."

Barry took note of her phrasing.

"I'd say that since none of us are playing that murderous bear's game, his rules don't really matter..."

Lup nodded, Barry felt the movement against his shoulder.

Not thinking about why he was doing what he was doing had worked out well so far, so Barry decided to keep going with it.

He pulled Lup in with the arm around her middle, and she moved along with him until she was sitting in his lap.

Lup met his eyes once she had settled herself and wrapped her arms around his neck. She had a slightly bemused look on her face. Barry knew exactly what she was feeling. Like trying a food you were extremely dubious about, only to find on trying a bite that you'd not only had it before, but it had been a childhood favourite.

Barry pushed back his swirling thoughts, leaving only the vague feeling he was desperately chasing.

"We've figured our way out of worse scrapes than this," he murmured, as he cupped her cheek in his hand.

"Barry..."

Hearing Lup say his name with that note of tenderness in her voice was more than Barry could handle.

He pulled Lup in and kissed her. Lup shifted forward, her fingers tightening around his shoulder. She tilted her head and deepened the kiss. For a single moment, everything felt alright again. Like some broken piece had finally slotted back into place.

Barry pulled back, a goofy smile plastered on his face. Lup didn't look half as pleased. She stared back at him, wide-eyed like she had just been slapped, not kissed.

"Shit. I'm so sorry! I didn't..."

Barry never got to finish that sentence. Lup was already up and was jumping down the bleachers, her red cloak billowing out behind her.

Barry thought about calling after her, but he had clearly done enough damage already.

Barry flinched as the doors to the gym slammed behind her.

* * *

  
Lup and Taako were missing at dinner, so Barry stepped in to cook. His meal wasn't anywhere near up to their standards, but everyone seemed to be off their food anyway. The mood had been bleak for a while, but Monokuma's intervention had brought it down to an all-time low.  
With nothing else to do, Barry retired to his room early, supposedly to sleep, but really to think about how badly he had fucked up.

  
He still didn't understand what had possessed him to just go for her like that, or why he said, 'We've figured our way out of worse scrapes than this'? That didn't even make any sense...

Eventually, Barry fell into a fitful sleep, haunted by nightmares of a skeleton figure in a red robe chasing after him, screaming something he didn't understand.

* * *

  
Barry awoke to the sound of someone pounding on his door. He rose, bleary-eyed and still wearing his clothes from yesterday. He stumbled to the door and opened it.  
Magnus was standing there, taking up almost all the doorway. As soon as he saw Barry, he sighed in relief.

"Don't tell me you've just been sleeping this whole time?!"

Barry flinched and glanced around Magnus to the others. Davenport and Merle were standing to one side, and Taako was pacing back and forth in the hallway behind them.

"Did I miss the morning meeting?" Barry asked, saying it out loud the moment it dawned on him.

Davenport nodded. He was keeping his composure, but Barry could tell something had gone seriously wrong. "You're not the only one. No one has seen Lup or Lucretia."

A bolt of panic shot though Barry, chasing away the sleep-induced fuzziness. He pushed past Magnus and out into the hallway.

"Taako, Lup didn't come back last night?"

Taako shook his head. He was tearing at the fabric of his tunic, half out of his mind with worry.

"We had a fight. I thought she was sleeping in her room because she was still pissed off. Fuck, I'm so stupid!"

"Taako, I need you to focus, when was the last time-"

A series of four chimes rang out over the school's PA system. All the television screens strategically placed around the hallways flicked on in unison. Displaying Monokuma sitting in a high-backed chair, his head resting on one tiny paw.

"A body has been discovered! All students, please report to the gym for a class trial briefing!"

Taako and Barry turned to see Magnus, Merle, and Davenport standing at an open doorway further down the hall. Davenport had both hands clasped over his mouth and Merle and Magnus were looking on with dull eyes and dumbstruck expressions.

  
Barry was standing at the wrong angle to see fully inside the doorway, but he caught the scent of iron and saw the corner of a small pool of magenta coating the floor just inside the doorway.

* * *

  
Under threat of further violence, the five of them were herded into the gymnasium.

Barry didn't want to feel relieved. Lucretia was by far the youngest of the group, probably the only one of them who looked like she belonged anywhere near a high school. She was smart, incredibly talented, and had her whole life ahead of her... Well, until now anyway.

Worst of all was the fact she might have been killed by someone in this room. Barry glanced around at the others. Taako was sitting on the floor, his arms crossed over his middle and staring off into the distance. Magnus was standing dead still, both hands balled into fists. Davenport

seemed to have calmed down a little now the vague threat had manifested. It seemed like he was already thinking about the task that lay ahead of them. Meanwhile, Merle looked absolutely lost like he couldn't process what had just happened.  
Barry could understand the feeling. He would be the first to agree that being trapped in here was awful, but wanting out so badly that the alternative would become an option?

Still, even if it was in the worst possible way, they had found Lucretia, and that left only one unaccounted for.

The doors burst open and a scorching wave of heat poured into the gymnasium. Each step Lup took scorched the polished floor. Both her hands were shrouded in flame and the tail of her red robe was singed black.

Taako clambered to his feet, but even he hesitated to take another step towards Lup.

Once she had reached the middle of the gym, Lup took a deep breath and yelled, "Monokuma! Get your smug ass out here."

A moment later said bear hopped up onto the podium on the gymnasium stage.

"Ah, there you are! We've been waiting for you, young lady! As your principle-"

Lup launched herself forward, and the whole stage erupted in a ball of fire. Frying the podium and Monokuma. The heat triggered the bomb inside the robotic bear, setting of a second explosion that knocked everyone but Lup off their feet.

Silence reigned as pillars of black smoke rose toward the ceiling.

"Lulu! What the fuck are you doing?!"

Lup turned to face her brother, the anger in her eyes waning for just a moment.

"I'm sorry Taako, but I have to try this."

Before anything else could be said, another Monokuma robot popped up, this time on the bleachers.

"Big mistake! Violence against the principle won't be tolerated! You break the rules, and I brake you!"

Lup launched another barrage, this time Monokuma was ready for her and dodged... right into another fireball.

He burned then exploded, taking out almost all the bleachers on the east side.

"See that, fuckface!" Lup shouted, presenting both middle fingers at the nearest camera. "I'm going to keep breaking your toys until you give us back our ship!"

A long silence met her proclamation. Everyone too stunned and confused to speak.

After the second explosion, Barry had decided to stay on the floor. Reasoning that he was just going to end up there anyway.

From his vantage point, with his head low to the floor, he noticed when small sections of it popped open, revealing three dozen black spears, topped with razor-sharp points. As one, they swivelled, taking aim.

"Lup, watch out!"

Lup turned her head and meeting his eyes a second before the spears struck home.

The flame that surrounded Lup snuffed out, leaving only the faint scent of brimstone.

Thick magenta liquid poured over Lup's bottom lip and trickled down her legs to pool on the floor. The black spears surrounded her like a halo, piercing her upper body in too many places to count.

For now, she was still on her feet. Caught in the moment before her brain realized what had happened to her body.

Lup grit her teeth and forced a smile.

"Well, I guess this works..."

As one, the spears retracted, wrenching themselves from her and doing just as much damage on the way out as they did going in.

Lup's mangled body hit the floor. Face down in the pool of her own blood.

Taako screamed.

* * *

  
Barry sat crossed legged on the gymnasium floor. Watching the pile of ashes that had once been the bleachers slowly burn themselves out.

Beside him, hidden under Magnus's large red robe, Lup's dead body lay in the position she had fallen.

Magnus had carried a weeping Taako out of the room, and the others had left to begin the investigation. it felt wrong to move on so quickly, but If they couldn't discover who had killed Lucretia, then they would all be executed.

Barry had insisted that there might be evidence he needed to find here, but really, he just couldn't handle the thought of Lup being left alone like this.

She had discovered something. Something that made her want to go head to head with whoever was running this sick game.

She'd said something about a ship. Why had she wanted a ship? What possible use could sailing be right now?

"I wish you'd told me what was going on..." Barry murmured.

**_"I mean, I thought about it, but I'm still not sure you'd believe me."_ **

Barry twisted around. A skeletal creature hung in the air above him, surrounded by ethereal light. Intangible wind swept over the long red robe it was wearing, and the sockets where it's eyes should be glowed a fiery red. 

Barry blinked, swallowed, and slumped to the floor in a dead faint.

The litch placed her hands on her hips.

_**"Seriously, babe?"** _

Lup sighed, which was quite the feat without lungs.

She couldn't be all that upset with him though. Poor Barry was having a very bad day. All things considered.

She floated over and put her spectral hand near his head, imitating patting him.

**_"I guess it's up to me to fix this. Let's see how our 'mastermind' deals with a ghost in the machine, shall we?"_ **


End file.
